I spent a weekend writing up 27 versions of the classic fairy tale. Same story and same facts each time; but in each, the backstory before it happened & the thoughts in each of their heads change–resulting in a very different story each time. Fun, light, tons of hidden easter egg gifts for the readers – and each one reinforcing that whenever I see someone behaving in a way that makes no sense to me, I need to ask myself, “what does he know that I don’t?”

Spanish Etymology: Spanish for Nerds. I am obsessed with understanding where words come from, in many languages–and connecting the dots. My passion since I was 8 years old. For fun, I turned my decades of notes into a blog, with tens of thousands of subscribers. Get the book, as well.

Created the market for modern art ketubahs. Led the company to profitability, and built a fantastic and loyal community around our art and style. Now I’m Chairman–just because that makes me sound important!

Overheard in New York. Founded a humor empire with my (successful!) mission to get 10 million people to laugh at my jokes. Time Magazine‘s Coolest Blogger of the Year. Endless Media Attention: my 15 minutes of fame. (And our sister sites, incl. Overheard in the Office).

Penn, the Low Ivy. Won the Alumni Society Award as one of the 10 best students of my year. Won the Lilian & Benjamin Levy Award for writing, too. And yes, I’m a pretentious grammar snob for saying “was graduated” rather than “graduated.” I also use the Oxford Comma.

In middle school, I read John & Abigail Adams’ collected letters and loved their epistolary style. So I found lots of pen-pals and wrote to them like this. I did this for years until I became quite good. Then I spent a decade doing the same but for other lots of other people’s styles.

Starting when I was approximately 8 years old until late high school, I’d spend 2 hours every morning memorizing the dictionary (and its etymologies), before the school bus came. The trusty, unpretentious World Book Dictionary, of course.

The entire extended family—everyone, very poor—all came to my great-aunt’s house for dinner every Sunday night, for decades. The weekly luxury. When she was in her 90s, she laid down her head while cooking the dinner, and died. The whole family arrived over the next hours, as scheduled. They ate the dinner. It’s what she would have wanted.

Five poor brothers emigrated from Minsk, Belarus to NY. The great depression was so bad for them that four of them returned to Belarus. Those four were murdered (you know, that issue with Germany). The one who stayed in NY was my great-grandfather. Thanks for not moving back to Eastern Europe on the eve of Hitler and Stalin, G-Gramps!

My great-grandfather emigrated from “Minsk Gubernia” to NY. Saved money, sent enough back to send for his wife… and the ship arrived, and his wife’s sister stepped off. Wife died and she took her place. She ended up being my great-grandma! Love those traditions.

23andme tells me I’m 100% Ashkenazi via Minsk/Belarus, confirming the family lore. 23andme has not yet confirmed the other family lore, on all sides, that we were all the poorest of the poor peasants: penniless rabbis, and the women who took care of them.

My story begins with my first known ancestor, Y Chromosomal Adam. He’s the first “anatomically modern human,” as the evolutionary-biologists call them: the one man whom science has taught us that I’m descended from. And all other modern humans, too.

About

Hi, I'm Morgan Friedman, not the actor. I get sh!t done. This site is a list of many of my projects: some professional, some for the sheer fun of it.